The tall monument commemorates several people in the family of William Duwe and his wife Catharine Marie (nee Tagge). On the 1880 U.S. Census, both reported their birthplace as Holstein, part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of modern Germany. William was probably born Wilhelm on 20 Dec 1835. Catharine was born Catharina, probably in Friedrichskoog, Dithmarschen on 2 Aug 1847.
In April of 1866, the Tagge Family sailed from Hamburg for New York and settled in Forestville, Door County, Wisconsin. William Duwe served in the 32nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Civil War, from its formation in 1862 through the end of the war in 1865. According to the Wisconsin Historical Society’s web site, the 32nd Wisconsin “participated in the Siege of Atlanta, Sherman's March to the Sea, the Battle of Bentonville and the surrender of the Confederate army.”
William’s occupation appears as “Farmer” on the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Censuses. He became postmaster of Forestville in 1889. He died two years later in 1891 at the age of 55 and Catharine only one year later at the age of 44. It appears that William and Catharine had ten children together. Two children died before they did: Anna (1871 – 1879) and Mary (1869 – 1890). These two, plus Emma (1875 – 1898) are commemorated on the same monument stone as their parents. A stone for Fred (1886 – 1903) is also in this cemetery, as well as a special civil war service stone for William near the combined family monument. William and Catharine’s son, John Henry (1877 – 1937) was the father of Donald Matthew Duwe (1911 – 1980), who was the father of my dad, Ronald Raymond Duwe (b. 1942).
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